From the Diary of Constance Temple
by Royalty Over Reality
Summary: The FAYZ is down and both of Connie's sons have made it out alive. The twins and their girlfriends have nowhere to go besides their mother's house. Will she be able to handle the chaos that comes from Sam, Caine, Astrid and Diana living under he same roof? AU where Caine lives. I don't own Gone.
1. December 13th

It's over. The Anomaly, which they're calling the FAYZ now, is finally over. Both S and C came out alive. S did a lot of good, and C did a lot of bad. But S was no saint, and C wasn't a total sinner. That's just what I expected with both of them completely unsupervised. One thing I didn't expect was C finding out the truth. I expected him to do a lot of things, but rummaging through files wasn't one of them. My expectations didn't matter, though. The truth was out. C knew that he was my son, and now he wanted to live with me.

Well, "wanted to" was an exaggeration. His adoptive parents had disowned him, and he had nowhere else to go. I was fully prepared to turn him away. I didn't need that kind of drama in my life. But he looked at me with my husband's eyes and spoke with the faintest trace of need in his voice. Coming from anyone else that little trace would be meaningless, but coming from C it was practically begging. So, I let him stay with me.

It was only when S and C showed up at my house that I realized how totally unprepared I was for this whole experience. I had purchased some clothes for both boys, two twin sized beds, and a plethora of snacks in anticipation for the arrival of my sons. S looked uneasy, but happy to be back. C found flaws in everything I did. I had expected that, but I didn't expect A and D.

In retrospect, I probably should've expected D. She was the only girl I'd ever seen C attempt to treat nicely. In fact, she was the only human I'd ever seen C attempt to treat nicely. Now that I think about it, she was the only thing in existence I'd ever seen C attempt to treat nicely. A came as a total surprise to me, though. S had never told me anything about her, even though he insisted that he had been in love with her for countless months, maybe even years before the FAYZ. It hurt that he never felt the need to tell me about something so important.

I still wasn't sure how I felt about the girls. A was intelligent, but oftentimes loud (in more ways than one). D was definitely not the same girl who used to torment her classmates back at CA, but I wasn't sure who that made her. Overall, she had the same derogatory humor, but there was something… different about her. She wasn't necessarily nicer, just less cruel. Except for when I suggested we go out to eat at the local Chinese place down the street, "The Joyful Panda." She began to assault me with the nastiest insults I had ever heard in my life. Then, C put his arm around her and glared at me as if I was the insensitive one.

Taking care of all these teenagers is hard. I'm just glad that S and A are trying to be good guests. C and D just keep making demands and insulting me. Hopefully, we'll figure out how to get along soon.


	2. December 14th

None of the kids go back to school until after winter break, which means they're home with me all day. Living with these kids is like working at a nuclear power plant. It's peaceful, up until one wrong move causes a total meltdown. These "meltdowns" are always caused by simple things that I can never notice. D and S will smile at each other for too long, somebody will eat the last fudge pop, we won't have the right kind of cereal, someone will bring up a touchy subject from the FAYZ, etc. Little things like this will cause epic screaming matches. I'm just glad that nobody has their powers. Then again, it's not like C is letting that stop him from causing collateral damage to my home. It didn't take him very long to learn that he didn't need levitation to throw things at his brother.

I've tried to stop these arguments, but when I do things get really weird. Everybody pauses for a second, and they all give me a different look. S's eyes say "Whoa, there's an adult taking responsibility, I forgot that could happen for a second there." Cs's say "Stay out of this, (enter expletive of choice here), you don't control me!" A's tell me "Why are you stepping in? I have this handled!" D's simply say "You don't really know how we roll, do you?"

It's strange to think about these kids developing their own culture, their own world where this is how disputes get solved. I have a hard time imagining any of these children in diplomatic situations or positions of leadership. However, A (who is a surprisingly good conversationalist) told me that both Sam and Caine were powerful leaders.

It's almost funny listening to the different kids tell me about the FAYZ. A gives very detailed accounts of certain events, but skirts around others like they never happened. Both the glorious and gory make it into her tales, but the ones she's deemed controversial (or make her look bad) don't make it in. She's like a walking textbook on the FAYZ.

S's stories are more like a memoir. Usually he won't tell me much about what happened under the dome, but when I can get him to talk he tells me stories about the good times he spent with his Q and some of his new friends. He's either honoring a hero or retelling an old joke. His stories are probably my favorites because they highlight the good, instead of just the bad.

If A is a textbook, and S is a memoir, that makes C a propaganda pamphlet. It's hard for me not to laugh when he talks about "liberating the poor, starving citizens of Perdido Beach from the chaos of Edilio Escobar's tumultuous rule" declaring himself king of the town. According to S, this Edilio boy was a fair and kind hearted leader who occasionally got over-stressed. That hardly sounded like "chaos" or a "tumultuous rule."

Still, biased stories were better than no stories at all. If D obviously had a story to tell, but she'd burned the book long ago. I was slightly curious about what exactly what happened to her in the FAYZ. She frequented my office with various injuries caused by Cs's friend Drake. I doubt his violent tendencies ceased when the adults disappeared. I also remember reading something online about him having a whip for an arm. Maybe the memories were just too painful for her to retell. Whatever the reason, I wasn't going to pry.


	3. December 15th

Life with four teenagers is everything but uneventful. There's never a dull moment, but sometimes I just need some time to relax. Unfortunately, I have way too many chores to do that. S is okay about helping me out with jobs that directly relate to him, but beyond that he's relatively useless. A is probably the most helpful. I'm beginning to really like that girl.

C and D are beginning to get one my nerves. Whenever I ask D to clean, she does one of a few different things. Most commonly, she'll say something about how having a baby messed up her body. I understand how a birth like that could hinder her ability to do anything labor intensive, but I'm still having trouble seeing how it affects her dusting skills. Yet, whenever I bring up that point, C comes rushing to her defense. Still, she'll occasionally help out (when there's nothing better to do), which is more than I can say for C.

Not only does C refuse to help me, but he doesn't even try to think of excuses. If I ask for help with the dishes on a good day, he'll smirk and turn me down. If I ask for help on a bad day, he'll insult me and most likely swear.

I can understand why he'd be mad at me, but this is my house and I think I deserve something in exchange for letting him live in it. Worse than that, he treats me like a servant. I'm not here to cater to his every whim. No one is. I can't be sure where he got this attitude, but I'm pretty sure that it was his adoptive parents. They probably spoiled him.

Whatever the reason, he thinks he can do anything he wants, anywhere he wants. Usually, it's not a problem, but sometimes it's landed me in some pretty awkward situation. Just today, I brought everyone to the grocery store because they ate a lot more than I thought they would. It was as if eating was their only hobby nowadays.

When we were at the store I had asked everyone to pick out something they liked in the frozen foods section. A came back first. She had at least ten of those Lean Cuisine dinners, stating they were "healthy and delicious, but never filling enough." S was right behind her, carrying almost twenty frozen pizzas. Sadly, this wasn't the first time that this had happened. C came back next, with armloads of junk food and soda. For once, I wasn't sure if he was trying to bug me or not. I figured out the answer when I told him to get at least one healthy thing and he came back with a candy bar. Finally, D arrived with her own personal shopping cart, loaded with food. Naturally, this made the other kids want their own shopping carts. Despite my protest, they eventually got their hands on them.

By the time we were done, we had four shopping carts piled high with food. People in the checkout line stared at me judgmentally. It was hard to tell if they disapproved of my excessive load of food or my excessive load of teenagers. I'll never forget the conversation I had in line with an exasperated mother who had just calmed down her crying baby.

"Are they all yours?" she asked, sounding shocked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"How do you do it?" she asked.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure sometimes."

"It's okay, we all have those days."

Her tone started off casual, but it gradually morphed into confusion. Then, her eyes flew open with horror.

"There's really no easy way to explain what your children are doing," the younger woman said, pointing at something that was going on behind me.

I turned around to see C and D making out, in the middle of the grocery store. The obviously thought that they were being really discreet about it, since they had purposefully positioned themselves behind S and A. At first, I didn't realize what was so shocking about what they were doing. It was vulgar, but it hardly deserved the horrified look that woman had given it.

Then, I realized why it looked so wrong to her. S was obviously my son, and both C and A looked vaguely like my children. Nobody would see the connection between me and D, if she didn't have the same hair and eye color as C. If the only thing you saw of the two was tan skin and dark hair, they could probably pass as siblings. Unfortunately, that was all the mother could see of them.

I quickly ran over to the two of them and forced them apart.

"God, mom. What's wrong with you?" C asked spitefully. He had made a habit of only calling my "mom" when he was teasing or insulting me.

"Yeah, mom," D joked a little too loudly for my liking.

I turned back to the young woman in hopes of explaining to her that C and D weren't just committing incest, but she had already gone to find a new place in line.


	4. Devember 17th

I can't believe D! She is so inconsiderate. I let her and A stay even though neither of them are related to me, but there's one difference between them. A is the daughter I never had, while D treats me worse than she did at Coates. She was in the nurse's office so often, that we used to almost be on a first name basis, but now she refuses to address me as anything but a bitch. I was just doing the dishes after making her a healthy and nutritious meal, when she comes up to me and tells me that I'm "just like him."

"Who do you mean?" I asked. I didn't want to start an argument.

"Your least favorite son," she replied. She seemed like she was looking for a fight or something. I don't know why, though. I never did anything bad to her.

"I know it was probably a bad decision to give him up-"

"Kind of?" she wondered, "That's the understatement of the year. You seriously messed him up. He's had obnoxious abandonment issues since he figured out that you were his mom. That's why he's treating you like crap, he's just looking for attention."

"How would you know? You don't seem to have many deep emotional conversations."

"Yeah, but I can tell. I've know the guy since I first got to CA, dated him for about a year, and seen sides of him that nobody else even knows are there. Plus, you don't need a psychology degree to figure out what he's doing. You just need to spend more than fifteen minutes a day with your own son. Oh wait, you never did that did you? Not even with S. He'd get home from school and you'd leave for work. You're freaking mother of the year."

I sent her away after that. I didn't need her to understand me. She'd just twist my words into weapons she could use against me. I wasn't about to give her the opportunity to do that. I have no idea how C could stand her. I don' know she could stand him, either, though. Maybe they couldn't, they were just worried nobody else would ever love them. I really didn't care. My strategy was just to pretend like they didn't exist and secretly count the days until they turned eighteen, or found a new place to stay, or died in a tragic accident. Okay, maybe that last one was a little harsh.


	5. December 20th

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for the holidays this year. S and I never did anything huge for Hanukah and our only Christmas tradition was going out for Chinese food. A, C, and D all came from Christian families, though. However, C and D aren't very religious and A is completely atheist. Apparently, they all still wanted to celebrate Christmas, though. To me, Christmas seems like a lot of work for something's that's supposed to be so cheery. There's seems to be a lot of different thing to pack into twenty five, or in our case, five days. I decided to ask the kids what traditions they always had, so that way I could know what was necessary. I started with A, since I was pretty sure she was going to mock me the least. I didn't want to talk with D, or worse, C without any information. They would make me look like an idiot.

I wrote up a list of questions, so I'll just copy and paste that into here three times and write out their answers underneath the questions:

A's Answers:

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

"Oh, there were so many, but I always knew that the holidays are coming when my mom and dad would get out the nativity set. We had this huge collection of approximately fifty pieces, and my parents would let me set them all up. When I was really little, I would get out my illustrated junior bible and try to replicate the picture of the nativity scene. I'd spend hours on end trying to make everything look just like I thought it had happened."

What is your favorite thing to eat around the holidays?

"My mom would always make these little Angel sugar cookies with sprinkles all over them. When I was really little she used red and green sprinkles, but when I turned seven I asked her to stop using them because I didn't think it looked "realistic." I thought that the angels should've been covered in white sprinkles because they had to fly through the snow to get to baby Jesus. I was only seven so I had no idea that the climate of Babylon would prevent it from ever snowing there. At first, my mom just gave me a strange look, but then she smiled at me and pulled out the big box she kept all of her sprinkles and frosting in. She searched for a while, but she couldn't find any white sprinkles. She could however find blue sprinkles. She knew there was no hope of convincing me that snow was blue. She did know that I was a very logical child, so she tried to reason with me. My mother reminded me that snow melted into water when you came inside, so we could use the blue sprinkles to represent me. I liked the idea, and every year after that we had little angel sugar cookies with blue sprinkles on them."

Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

"I've always loved Silent Night. The lyrics don't mean much to me anymore, but the music still calms me down every time I hear it."

What do you want for Christmas this year?

"You don't have to get me anything, Connie. Just letting me stay here is enough of a gift."

What does Christmas mean to you?

"Honestly, I don't even know anymore. I used to believe it was all about celebrating the birth of Jesus, but that doesn't really mean anything to me anymore. After all, he was just a man, wasn't he?"

Anything else you want to tell me?  
"It would be great if we could get a Fraser, which is type of Christmas tree. It fills the whole house with this amazing pine scent. It was one of the only non-religious traditions I had.

Christmas was obviously something that made A very emotional. She was torn between her new lack of belief and her old memories. I couldn't help, but notice that none of her memories involved her younger brother, Pete. I assumed it was simply because she found it hard to talk about him ever since he died. I could hardly imagine the pain that put her through.

I decided to talk to D next, since she was usually more agreeable than C.

D's Answers:

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

"I know this sounds weird, but I always liked Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. At least, I did when I was little. My parents would buy me a brand new dress, and then my extended family would come over. My dad only had one brother who lived a little farther north than we did, but my mom had family scattered all over the southern part of the state and Nevada. Everyone one my mom's side of the family loved me. They always brought cookies, money, clothes, presents, and anything else I wanted. My dad's little brother didn't like me so much because I was always picking on his daughter, Riley. It wasn't really bad stuff. I'd just hide all of her presents and pretend like I found them, or put food on her chair before she sat down. She was really anti-social and she only had her parents to back her up, so I could get away with anything I wanted to. If she ever retaliated, I had an army of aunts and uncles on my side. Wow, that story made sound like a bitch didn't it?"

What is your favorite thing to eat around the holidays?

"You know me, I'll eat anything. Chocolate is a must have, though."

Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

Not Feliz Navidad. My uncles totally ruined that one for me when I was nine. They got really drunk and sang it for almost an hour. I don't know why, but I've always liked the modern ones. Especially "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey, but who doesn't like that one?

What do want for Christmas this year?

"Like I said earlier, chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate."

What does Christmas mean to you?

"Last year it meant taking care of your son while he was in a coma, so anything you do would literally be less shitty than that."

Anything else you want to tell me?

"Good luck trying to get C to answer any of these."

It took a lot of pestering, but eventually I did get him to answer them. They weren't serious answers, but they were answers all the same.

C's Answers:

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Having my so-called aunts and uncles ask me what grade I'm in five times each, even though they couldn't give a damn

What was your favorite thing to eat around the holidays?

"Food."

Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

"No."

What do you want for Christmas this year?

"World domination, but if that's outside of your price range, I'll take emancipation."

What does Christmas mean to you?

"Ignoring my family until the presents come out."

Anything else you want to tell me?

"I'm serious about that wishlist!"


	6. December 22nd

Today I went shopping for my first Christmas tree. I've heard Christian women talking about their first Christmas together as family as magical, but for some reason I wasn't feeling it. Maybe it was because I wasn't Christian, or maybe it was because my "whole family" consisted of my teenage sons (both of who seemed to harbor some animosity towards me) and their girlfriends. All of the squabbling made it a lot less than "magical."

Personally, I would've loved to get an artificial tree. It would've caused a lot less hassle and been much cleaner, but A had insisted on getting a real one. I wasn't about to turn the only child who didn't seem to dislike me against me. Unfortunately, A wouldn't settle for just any tree. She had a specific set of requirements. It had to be two feet shorter than the ceiling, at least a yard wide, there couldn't be any bare spots, and it had to be a Fraser. I didn't even know what a Fraser was, so I had no idea which Christmas trees were even acceptable for suggestion.

On top of that, C just had to ruin everything. He had his own set of Christmas tree rules. Shockingly, he his rules were almost identical to A's. There were only two differences: he didn't care what type of tree we got, as long as it was the tallest tree we could possibly get. A's heart was set on two feet of space between the tip of the tree and the ceiling, but C demanded no less than two inches of space. Naturally, S came rushing to A's defense. Unfortunately, D didn't do the same for C. She just remained apathetic to the entire situation, which pissed off C.

Most people would just listen to majority rules and settle for a sensible tree size, but not C. In fact, the opposition just made him fight harder for his way. Why does he have to be so stubborn and immature? It makes him impossible to deal with. I have no idea where D got the assumption that we're similar. We don't have a thing in common! He's a manipulative brat who always tries to make himself seem like an angel, even though he's anything but! I would never do anything like that!

The selection process was long and tiring, but in the end we were down to 2 different trees. A's was a modest sized tree with particularly fragrant needles and a slightly lighter color than most of the other Frasers. C's was an overgrown and extravagant choice with dark green, exceptionally spiky needles. They were both great trees. S, D, and I would've been happy taking home both of them.

The war began quietly and diplomatically, with both A and C trying to politely manipulate the other into choosing their Christmas tree. During the first five minutes of their discussion I was impressed with their maturity. There was a lot of "Yeah, you listen to A"s from Sam, and a lot of eye rolls from D, but nobody was arguing…yet. At about the seven minute mark, I had begun to realize this debate wasn't ending any time soon. So, I began playing a game of Words with Friends on my phone. I was about to win, when S came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Um, Mom. Diana went over to get some of the candy canes and hot chocolate they're handing out at the place where you check out. Mind if I go with her?" he asked cautiously, as if he was on edge about something.

I dismissed it as nothing, since things have been awkward since the FAYZ ended.

"Of course you can," I told him.

He thanked me and ran off to go find D. Since I had lost my game, I put away my phone and turned my attention to A and C. A was spitting out facts and information about how Christmas tree height could affect the mood of a room, and in turn the people. C had turned up the charisma to full power, but both of their attempts were futile. A couldn't use logic to make C less self-confident, and C couldn't use self-confidence to make A less logical. Unfortunately, both of them were too stubborn to realize this and make a compromise. If they worked together, they would make a great advertising team.

I take it back, those two could never successfully be on any type of team. As time passed, C's charm faded into threats of violence. I tried to scold him, but it was hopeless. I couldn't hold him back since he was stronger than me, and he'd just ignore my attempts to ground him. I was powerless, and both C and A knew it.

A was fearless, though. It seemed as though she'd be willing to take a beating for her Christmas tree. No, it was about more than the fact that Caine's tree was 22 inches taller than she had permitted. It was about remaining strong and holding on to her opinions, refusing to give in. Unfortunately, it had become the same thing for C, but that didn't seem to bother A. For the first time since we'd met, I saw a darker side of her come out in one simple phrase.

"You know, I'd be careful if I were you, C. You don't want your mother changing your mind on taking you back in," A said.

It was something D had joked about on occasion, earning her a scowl from C, but nothing more. C didn't react so mildly to A, though. I had a feeling it was a little bit more than C's closeness to D in comparison to his feelings for A that made this unacceptable. D's remarks on the subject were playful reality checks meant to tease her boyfriend out of his wicked ways. A spoke without any laughing cruelty, her voice was laced with sincerity that mingled with the slightest trace of belittling sympathy. A lover's mischievous warnings were kisses in comparison to a rivals daggers of wholehearted input.

C responded to A's statement by lifting his hand into the air. A stared at C, looking cautious, but too curious of her adversary's next move to flee. At first there was nothing, then C glanced at his hand and muttered something under his breath as if he was just now realizing his telekinesis was gone for good. He sauntered over to A and raised his open hand as if he was going to slap her. I didn't bother protesting, since it would only make him more intent on harming poor A, who had already opened her mouth to scream. Much too A and I's surprise, C didn't strike. He just clamped his hand over her mouth and smirked.

"Were you going to scream for your boyfriend? Send him rushing over here to save you?" Caine said in a low, threatening voice that was eerily calm, "That was a very clever plan, I have to give you that. It would've painted you as the victim my mother's eyes, started an argument between me and D, and probably caused S to finally grow a pear and kill me."

C removed his hand from A's mouth, smirking like a corrupted dictator who had gotten the pleasure of personally torturing a POW. His eyes gleamed, hungrily awaiting A's response.

"S would never do that, he's not a monster like you!" A spat.

"You mean he's not a monster like you," C whispered.

The words dripped off of his sinister tongue with effortless pleasure. A looked down at the ground, trying to hide the tears that were quietly dripping out of her eyes. With each drop of salty water Caine's smirk stretch itself out across his face like an arrogant, red python that was sunning itself on a rock. I wasn't sure why his words had such an effect on her, but that didn't matter to me. I was just horrified that this boy, no calling him a boy made him sound too innocent. He was more than a boy, yet less than a boy at the same time. He was a tyrant, and I couldn't believe that he was my son. Needless to say, I purchased A's favorite tree without hesitation.


	7. December 24th

Today I literally experienced a Christmas miracle. C came to me for help. It happened at exactly 9:17 pm (nobody can judge me for remembering that since this is a momentous, once in a lifetime occasion).

I was flipping back and forth between the Kohl's website and emailing a friend while sipping herbal tea to calm myself down before bed. I didn't even know C was near me until he cleared his throat.

"So, did you get D anything for Christmas?" he asked.

"Yeah. She asked for chocolate so I got her one of those big bags of holiday candy," I replied.

"Well, what would you have gotten her if you were me?"

"Since it's almost 9:30 pm on Christmas Eve and you have to ask me this, I'm going to guess nothing."

"Shut up! I've been trying to think of something, but I can't come up with anything good."

"You could always just ask her."

"I already did that. Apparently telling me what she wanted would "ruin the fun,"" C muttered, "I tried to ask A, too, but she's not talking to me. I even went to S!"

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He didn't have to say anything. I saw him searching "is it illegal for a sixteen year old boy to buy his girlfriend lingerie?" on his phone and decided he wouldn't be very useful."

"Smart choice."

_Not to self: Make sure S didn't purchase any lingerie. Also, make sure he understands the American justice system. _

S wasn't my top priority at the time, though. It was C who had come to me for help (I'm still having a hard time believing that actually happened). The only problem was, I wasn't exactly sure what to say. S had dated a few girls in his life, but he had never been in a relationship serious enough to exchange gifts. I struggled for the right thing to say until I eventually came up with this:

"Just think about what you're trying to say with this gift."

Caine looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world and asked, "What does that even mean?"

"Well, just picture in your head what you would say to her when you give her your present," I clarified.

"Here you go?" Caine said, questioning whether that was the correct thing to say or not.

"No, no, no," I said, "Let's pretend we live in a world where we randomly talk about our feelings whenever we give presents. What would you say?"

Caine rolled his eyes, but went along with it out of desperation.

"Hey, Diana, Merry Christmas," Caine mumbled self-consciously, "I have no idea whether or not this is the present you want, so please don't get pissed at me if it isn't because you never told me what I was supposed to get you. If it is what you want, though, I want you to forget I said that because I'm going to pretend that I knew what you wanted all along."

"That's enough. I think I get the picture," I cut him off.

"So how do I turn that into an awesome present?" C wondered.

I had a hard time imagining that translating into anything but a handmade "please don't break up with me" card.

"You don't," I replied, "You gift needs to say something about how you feel about her. If you want I could take you to the mall to find her a gift."

"Fine," C groaned, "It's not like I have a reputation to maintain or anything."

To say that C hadn't been very popular since the FAYZ came down would be an understatement. People were sending him threats and hate mail with everything from Facebook to the postal service.

At the mall, we spent about an hour looking for the perfect gift. C rejected almost everything I suggested, saying that it wasn't good enough. We went to jewelry stores, boutiques, and a makeup store, but we couldn't find anything that was "worthy" of D. We decided to take a break and get a late night snack at the food court before going back to our mission.

"So where do you want to look next?" I asked.

"I don't know. There's nothing in this whole mall that even comes close to perfect. I'm pretty sure that I could give her the moon, and she's be pissed because she would've rather had a star," Caine muttered.

"Well, you don't have to buy something."

"I can't make something in less than one night, mom."

"Well, you could write her a poem or a letter."

C just laughed at that one, but I could sense some uneasiness behind it.

"Why do you need the perfect gift anyway?" I asked, "Isn't a really, really awesome gift enough?"

"Don't talk to me like I'm five. If you want to be done with this, we can go back to Bath and Body works get that body spray."

"No, I was just kind of wondering…never mind."

"What? What were you wondering?"

"Well, it seems kind of like it's not the presents that you don't think are good enough for D, but you."

"No! I'm awesome!" Caine said, a little too loudly.

The handful of other people who had come to the mall at ten o'clock pm stared at us. C looked down at his feet, obviously embarrassed.

"It's okay to be insecure, every teenager in the world is. Heck, every person in the world is."

"I'm not insecure!" C said authoritatively, then he continued in a softer, mumbling tone, "I'm just…worried. She already left me once, I don't want to drive her away again."

I didn't have any great advice for that. So I simply said, "Let's go back and get that body mist, and I'll even throw in that silver bracelet we were looking at. She's sure to love it."

C didn't smile, but he didn't lash out at me either. It wasn't much, but it was progress.


	8. December 25th

**A/N: Shout out to Skullhead676 for suggesting the hilarious line at the end of Astrid's letter to Sam.**

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays finally over, it's nice to just sit back and relax. I was surprised to find that Christmas day was refreshingly calm, compared to the rest of the holiday season. I'm pretty sure that the kids really liked it too.

To avoid chaos, everyone opened their presents in order from youngest to oldest. At first C protested it, until D reminded him that S would be going last, which seemed to satisfy him. Naturally, D had defended the idea. Her June birthday meant she would be going first.

She started with my gift to her, which, as I've stated before, was chocolate. She was grateful, but we didn't hug or anything because of the never ending awkwardness that came from being both her boyfriend's long lost mother and her former school nurse. After that, she opened Astrid's present, which included a stack of books and a card with note written inside. The books were _Siddhartha, Hiroshima,_ _The Odyssey, Romeo &amp; Juliet, _and _To Kill a Mockingbird. _None of them seemed like D's idea of an exciting read, but A's note explained it. Here's what the card said:

_Dear D,_

_We were never very good friends in the FAYZ, so I had no idea what to get you. You'll probably hate half of them, but they're the books we were supposed to read for school in 9__th__ grade. If you're not taking Honors English, you technically don't need to read Hiroshima. I just figured you'd like an opportunity to get ahead in at least one of your classes. Even if you don't read them on your own, it'll probably be nice to have your own copies instead of the ones from the school library, right? I read all of them in the FAYZ, because I didn't want to be behind when I got out of the FAYZ, so if you want any help comprehending the more challenging reads I'll help you. Of course, I'm also available for discussion. I would love to hear your opinions on the stories and characters. Who knows, this could be the start of a wonderful friendship._

D rolled her eyes at the note, and proceeded to S's gift. It was a simple Visa gift card, which earned him a quick hug. It wasn't very personal, but from the way he was apologetically looking at C while D was hugging him he seemed more concerned with not infuriating his brother than impressing D.

D had saved C's gift for last. It wasn't wrapped or anything, but we had bought a neon green gift bag to put it in. When D pulled the gift out of the bag, I was almost as anxious as C was to see her face. We had put too much time into that present for her to hate it. D carefully lifted the bottle of Cinnamon Carmel scented body mist out of the bag and gingerly picked up the delicate silver bracelet which had been draped around the neck of the bottle.

"Wow, that's beautiful," I said, following the plan C and I had made up on the car ride home from the mall.

"Well, it will be," C said effortlessly, as if he hadn't practiced this scene for at least fifteen minutes before today. Then he turned to D and said, "Once you're wearing it."

At first, D rolled her eyes and tried to look uninterested, but she decided against it. Instead she flashed C a discreet smile and pecked him on the cheek.

After D was finished opening her presents, it was A's turn. She also began with mine, unwrapping the book she had been hinting for me to buy her and graciously thanking me. Then, she proceeded to a present that was supposedly from D &amp; C, but something told me that only one of them was involved. It was a box of candy canes, which A courteously thanked D for, completely ignoring the existence of C. She had also saved the present from her present for last. Luckily, it wasn't lingerie. S had gotten her a new blouse, which she repaid with a hug.

The next person to open their presents was C. He opened my present, which was a new jacket. He didn't thank me for it, but he looked pleased when he opened it which was better than I'd expected. Neither S or A had given him anything, so the only gift left for him to open was D's.

When he opened the gift, he pulled out what had to be the most hideous Christmas sweater I had ever seen in my life. It was blue with little white snowflakes covering the entire garment. I'm pretty sure it was a girl's sweater since it was covered in silver glitter. The worst part of the sweater was that it had what looked like half of a stuffed snowman mounted on the front.

Caine held it up, trying to figure out what to say. He was trying to hide his disdain with a fake smile, but it just made him look even more sickened. Then, a tiny slip of paper fluttered out of the sleeve and onto the floor. D laughed and scooped it off up the floor.

"Fall Out Boy tickets," she explained simply.

Caine chuckled quietly to himself and hugged her.

S was the last child to open his presents. He began with A's, which was a carefully wrapped polo shirt with another handwritten not that read:

_Dear S,_

_We've been through a lot, haven't we? We've both lost a lot of people who were very close to each other. We've lost a lot of other things, too, but I got something even better in exchange: you. In the end, that made it all worth it._

_PS: I'll give you the rest of your present tonight!_

It was simple and sweet, and S was obviously very appreciative. I was prepared to go upstairs for nap since I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, but A surprised me by pulling a relatively large box out from behind the couch. The gift attached told me it was from all of the kids, even though I hadn't expected them to get me anything. I thanked all of the kids and then unwrapped the gift to discover that it was one of those high tech blenders you see advertised on television, which was a welcome replacement for mine which was approximately ten years old.

I looked up from the blender to my sons and their girlfriends. A smiled warmly, and S had his arm around her shoulder. He was smiling, too, but with more shyness than A. At first glance, D looked emotionless, but when you took a closer look you could see one of the corners of her mouth was upturned in a smile. C just looked bored, but I didn't care. For what was probably the first time in my life I truly understood the meaning of the word family.


End file.
